7 Trends Dominating Content Marketing in 2018

Content marketing stimulates interest and encourages the audience to engage with the source of the content. Now that more than half of the World’s population has access to the internet, content marketing has become more significant.

The number of internet users in 2018 is 4.021 billion.

The more the content consumers there are, the more competition the content marketers can expect. Grabbing the attention of the audience is something marketers have always strived to achieve, and this is even true today.

Content marketing is both relevant and significant. Let’s have a look at the 7 trends dominating Content Marketing in 2018.

1. Content Marketing Rocks With Original Content

More and more people are accessing the internet, and more and more content is produced on a daily basis. Many businesses have invested time and resources in content marketing, but most of their efforts have not been fruitful. Ineffective content marketing could be a direct result of compromising quality in favor of quantity.

Quality will continue to trump quantity.

If content doesn’t stand out due to its originality, it will fail to bring any benefit. This is especially true as Search Engine Optimization is giving more preference to original and fresh content. It is extremely easy to be ignored in the plethora of content that is already present on the internet.

Wouldn’t content marketing be useless if it didn’t achieve what it was supposed to do? Companies that adapt themselves according to this trend and produce fresh content will be the ones who truly stimulate interest. Producing content that doesn’t add any special value to the reader’s life is an unwise thing to do.

Content that is original and higher in quality must be calibrated for a specific audience. The content that gets most attention this year has to show these qualities in order to shine.

2. Consistent Ephemeral Content

Ephemeral content will continue to keep the audience hooked in 2018.

Ephemeral content is content that disappears after a particular interval. The best example of ephemeral content is a Snapchat Story that disappears after twenty-four hours. The popularity of Snapchat Stories has prompted other social media platforms to introduce their own ephemeral features like Whatsapp Status and Facebook Stories. Instagram has also introduce a similar feature.

Ephemeral content helps consumers feel more connected to the brand.

Businesses have also begun to optimize their content to suit these ephemeral features. These features can be a valuable source of lead generation and conversion. People on the go can easily access this content through their phones and stay connected to the brand.

Since the content has a limited lifespan, people tend to face a Fear of Missing Out (FOMO). Plus the short and sweet nature of ephemeral content makes it a powerful contender. As attention spans decrease, content that is presented in bite-sized pieces becomes more favorable.

Content marketers can use this trend in their favor to produce attractive and interactive content to stay relevant for their audience

Instagram has also launched a new feature for Stories called the Question Sticker. This engaging feature allows the Instagrammer to ask a question to their audience via the sticker and get responses in return. Interactive features like these are bound to be introduced throughout social media platforms and so content marketers should keep an eye on the Social Media platforms they’re targeting.

Ephemeral content will continue to dominate the social media landscape.

3. Content Personalization

This year there will be an upsurge in content personalization. Humans clearly love it when they see their name or any other personalized content. We can expect more and more businesses to adopt content personalization in their content marketing strategy.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, content personalization is a strategy that exploits visitor or prospect data to deliver relevant content based the interests and preferences of the target audience. So if you have previously shopped on a certain ecommerce site and you find a new section called ‘Products Recommended For You’ when you log in to the site, you have found content personalization playing its role.

Small technical changes to the content can lead to a greater amount of content personalization and a greater amount of attention from the audience.

4. More Video Content

People are spending more and more time consuming video content. This is why more and more businesses want to produce video content.

By 2020, online videos will make up more than 80% of all consumer internet traffic (85% in the US). (Cisco)

Brands can use video content to creatively communicate information, promote their offerings and engage with the audience. Since visual content does so well, it should remain a priority for brands.

In fact, 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual.

Even though it might take significant resources to produce an engaging and high quality video, it will pay off in terms of the attention that it garners from the audience.

5. Even More Live Videos

Live videos are being consumed more and more and will hence continue to be produced more. Since the mental effort required to view videos is lesser than the effort required to read text, videos in general will stay relevant for content marketers in 2018.

Live videos are successful because they bring a human element to content marketing. Not only are live videos more engaging but the fact that questions asked in comments will be answered right away often encourages people to engage more with live videos. In a survey conducted by Livestream,

82% of the respondents said they preferred tuning into a brand’s live video to reading its social media posts.

Stimulating the interest of the audience through live videos is easier This is why it would be a wise addition to the content marketing efforts of a brand. Live video content can be a superb addition to your Social Media Marketing Strategy.

6. Super Niche Content

As the amount of content on the internet surges, there is more and more generic content available to the audience. Not only does generic content make it difficult to rank in the search results but it also fails to capture the attention of the audience properly. This is why businesses with enough foresight have understood the need to produce Super-Niche Content.

Example of Super Niche Content would include ‘Best practices related to “branchless” banking’ and ‘Your Guide to Exercising With Osteoporosis’

The strategy to produce super niche content will pay off as the content is offering something unique to the audience. Create content that is highly specific and targeted at a smaller niche audience and you will benefit in 2018.

7. Heart-Warming Stories

Content marketing is fundamentally not about selling. It is about connecting with the audience and increasing both trust and engagement. This engagement does lead to more leads but there is usually no engagement if the brand focuses on selling and selling without giving any reason to the consumer to connect with the brand.

We have already witnessed a shift with brands sharing their heart-warming stories in order to connect with the audience. This trend will continue in 2018.

See how Warby Parker Eyewear does it:

Establishing a human connection is of prime importance and storytelling with its conversational tone and high relatability does a great job at it.

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